Dream Between Adventurers
by Aviantei
Summary: [One Shot] In its pages, legends were obtainable, so they sought those adventures for themselves. That was the power of the book titled Dungeon Oratoria. [Twelve Shots of Summer: Go/五]


**Dream Between Adventurers**

By: Aviantei

[Twelve Shots of Summer: Go/五 12/12]

A _DanMachi_ One Shot

* * *

 _Sanjouno Haruhime_

* * *

The renart girl's golden hair seemed to shimmer even brighter in the early morning sun. The fox ears atop her head twitched in interest as she eyed the shelves in the manor's library. She'd been learning to read in bits in pieces, and Haruhime had decided to pick out a book of her own for the afternoon. She squinted at the titles along the shelves but couldn't make much sense of the packed kanji that lined their spines.

After a few more minutes of trying (and failing) to make sense of the shelf, Haruhime admitted defeat and moved on to the next one. It was her sixth shelf that morning. The process continued through the next three shelves after, the young renart's spirits sinking in the process.

 _There needs to be something I can make sense of…_

Even though discouragement started to worm its way into Haruhime's heart, she continued through the oaken shelves, staring down hundreds of colorful spines in the process. At last, the simple markings of Koine emerged from the sea of kanji. Though different than her native tongue, Haruhime could decipher the common tongue much faster than the complex characters, and she snatched the volume off the shelves.

In her hands, the textured cover seemed all the heavier, its deep color contrasting against her pale skin. Haruhime held the book up, doing her best to string the letters she recognized together into words.

 _Dungeon Oratoria._

Over time, Haruhime would learn to read the rest of the book as well, and the stories would come to take root in her mind. In its pages, people became heroes, evil fell, and legends were born. Every time she reached the final page, it would just be a matter of time before she opened its covers again. Though they were simply stories, they lit a spark in Haruhime's imagination.

Even when they forced her away from her home, that spark did not fade.

* * *

 _Tiona Hiryute_

* * *

To anyone that knew her back then, they never would have suspected that book as the place she found her hope. After all, Tiona was an Amazonian warrior, through and through. In any other situation, she was dumb and cheerful, but when battle came she could kill her sisters and arms with no remorse. It was a question of survival, after all.

But when it came to that book, nothing else mattered. Though she hadn't been able to read it at all at first, she'd fallen in love with the stories inside from the moment she heard them. That had been the start of her interest in reading, in the world of myth, a place where heroism was possible and there was an alternative to the world of bloodshed in their country.

They didn't have room to pack much, and it would have been impossible to take her whole collection with them. Tiona ran her fingers over the small stack of books she'd built over the years as Tione cursed under her breath, gathering up what things she could for the journey ahead. One last time, Tiona flipped through _Dungeon Oratoria_ , the pages all worn from how many times she'd gone through the tales, learned from them.

Because of that book, she'd seen a different route, one that other Amazons couldn't even imagine. So when the chance had come to bargain for their freedom, Tiona had taken it. Judging by the sounds of agitation from the other side of the room, at that moment, Tione's heart was filled with anger.

But all Tiona could feel was hope.

* * *

 _Bell Cranel_

* * *

It felt like he'd heard that book a thousand times before he'd even understood how to read. It wasn't because his grandfather didn't read him anything else—there were plenty of other legends and fables mixed in to Bell's childhood. But that book resonated with him more than anything else.

It was simply that he had the soul of a hero.

 _Dungeon Oratoria_ played a role in Bell's development, almost on the same level of his grandfather. Whenever he helped around the house or tended to the garden or snuck in rough combat practice before dinner, the legends were always playing through his mind. He would imagine himself as the hero, the one to rescue the girl, the one to save the day.

Through it all, his grandfather encouraged him with a pat on the head and words of advice. And when Bell was old enough, he packed his meager bag, that book tucked inside, and set his sights on traveling to Orario, the city of adventurers and the Dungeon, not even knowing that he'd already entered the first page of his own story:

The one called _Familia Myth._

* * *

 **[Author's Notes]  
**

This one shot concludes my entries for the fifth year of the [Twelve Shots of Summer] challenge. It's also the one I struggled the most with finding an appropriate idea for. The prompts were "In Search of Legends" and "Proof of Existence," which ultimately boiled down to the adventurer's journey that Bell, Haruhime, and Tiona all follow as they seek after the stories of _Dungeon Oratoria_ and ultimately forge their own path in the process.

Part of my brain just wanted to focus on Bell and then write complementary pieces for the girls later, but I'm trying really hard here not to leave myself any more open projects, so I reduced it down to this size instead. Hopefully what I was aiming for still got across.

As this is the final week, I would very much like to recommend that you check out any story with a [Twelve Shots of Summer] tag on it. Everyone who's contributed to this challenge is super talented and has great ideas that are much worth reading. And if you find someone you like, drop them a review and share some encouragement! Maybe you'll help someone else squeeze one more out before the summer's over...

I, for one, am now going to collapse from this ridiculous updating schedule I've given myself the past few months.

Thanks for reading!

-Aviantei

[08.13.2018]


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